2021 Cohort

Natasha Berger
Social Psychology
HIV Prevention and Care

In partnership with The Hunter Alliance for Research and Translation (HART), which supports interdisciplinary, community-engaged research, broadly focused on gender and sexuality, Natasha Berger is focused on examining the link between religiosity and sexual health decision-making, specifically in cultures where religion plays a strong role in social norms and beliefs. She is also interested in improving sex education for Filipino youth, both natives and immigrants, as the Philippines is currently a country that does not implement comprehensive sex education. This omission puts the youth at a greater risk of encountering sexual and mental health issues in the future.

Natasha intends to pursue a degree in social psychology. Her career goal is to continue research to improve sexual health decision making of youth and to reduce social stigmatization related to sexuality and sexual behaviors.

Mentor

• Dr. Sarit A. Golub, Psychology, Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center

Honors and Awards

• Dean’s list, Fordham University
• Honor Roll, British International School, Phuket
• Creative Action Service (CAS) award, British International School, Phuket

Conference Attended

• University of Maryland McNair Scholars Conference, March 2021

Amilcar DaSilva
Public Health
How COVID-19 Factors Impact Adults and Children with a History of Emotional Disturbance

Amilcar DaSilva's research focuses on reducing and mitigating the health disparities, inequalities and inequities that exist in society. He intends to pursue a PhD in public health with a concentration in health policy management. His career goal is to work as both a medical and health services manager in a hospital setting, and an educator at the university level.

Almicar is participating in the 2021 Summer Undergraduate Minority Research Program (SUMR) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mentor

• Dr. Susan Cardenas, Public Health, Hunter College

Honors and Awards

• Chi Alpha Epsilon Honor Society
• Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society
• Recipient of The Ernst Fedor Hoffmann Memorial Award for excellence in German study
• Recipient of Community College Partnership Scholarship

Conference Presentations

• How Does COVID-19 Factors Impact Adults and Children with a History of Emotional Disturbance, University of Maryland McNair Scholars Conference, March 2021

Mohamed Elgallad
Biological Sciences
Identifying a Locus that Confers Resistance to Beech Bark Disease

Mohamed Elgallad's research focuses on the American beech tree (Fagus grandifolia), which is an important species in North American forests, and is currently under a major threat of beech bark disease (BBD). His research is part of a project to gather genome sequences from Arnot Forest, from both healthy resistant trees and infected ones, in an attempt to identify a locus that provides Beech trees with resistance to this fungus.

Mohamed’s research goals revolve around the use of genetics to help in the conservation of species, making food more accessible to the world with more tolerant crops and tracing the evolutionary journey of certain organisms. He intends to pursue a degree in genetics, molecular and cell biology. His career goal is to grow as a researcher while simultaneously taking part in academia and hopefully mentoring a new generation of researchers.

Mohamed is participating in the Summer 2021 Plant Genome Research Program REU at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University.

Mentors

• Dr. Weigang Qiu, Biology, Hunter College
• Dr. Susan Strickler, BTI Computational Biology Center (BCBC)

Honors and Awards

• Erasmus+ Mobile +3 Unlimited Student Exchange program (Biological Sciences Major) 12/2017-07/2018 University of Porto, Portugal

Conference Attended

• University of Maryland McNair Scholars Conference, March 2021

Ariana Guzman
Italian Studies and Women and Gender Studies
Contemporary Literature, War Literature, Sociolinguistics, Women Writers and Gender Studies

Ariana Guzman’s research goals revolve around contemporary literature, war literature, sociolinguistics, women writers and gender studies. She intends to pursue a degree in Italian studies and comparative literature.  Her career goal is to teach contemporary Italian literature at a university.

In 2020, Ariana completed a Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 2021, she is participating in the RISE program at Rutgers.

Mentors

• Dr. Paolo Fasoli, Romance Languages, Hunter College
• Dr. Alessandro Vettori, Italian Studies and Comparative Literature, Hunter College
• Dr. Andrea Baldi, Italian Studies, Hunter College

Honors and Awards

• Ronald E. McNair Scholar Program, Hunter College, CUNY. 2019- Present
• Thomas Hunter Honors Program, Hunter College, CUNY. 2018- Present
• Golden Key National Honor Society, Hunter College, CUNY. 2017- Present
• Anne Blatt Endowed Scholarship, Hunter College, CUNY. 2019 – 2019

Conference Presentations

• “Dismissing the Colonial Gaze: Vernacular Language as a Means of Self-Representation and Empowerment in the Works of Nicolás Guillén.” The 22nd Annual University of Maryland National Conference for McNair Scholars and Undergraduate Research, March 2021
•  “Reclaiming Identity and Rejecting Colonial Values: An Analysis of Nicholas Guillien’s Motivos De Son through the perspective of Frantz Fanon.” The 1st NSG International Webinar on ‘Theory, Research, and Practice in Geolinguistics, December 2020
• “Language variations in Elena Ferrante’s The Neapolitan Novels.” 24th Annual MKN Heartland McNair Conference, September 2020
• “La Pérdida del Lenguaje en Inmigrantes de la Segunda y Tercera Generación en Los Estados Unidos.” XI Conferencia Internacional Lingüística 2019, Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística José Antonio Portuondo Valdor, Havana, Cuba, November 2019
• “English in Music as a Lingua Franca.” The 5th International ASG Conference: Aspects of Language Contact and Conflict III, Daito Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo, Japan, April 2019
• “Acronyms and Abbreviations: The Emergence of the New Language Used by Millennials.” The 2nd International ASG Conference in Tokyo: Aspects of Language and Contact and Conflict, Daito Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo, Japan, April 2018
• “Acrónimos y Abreviaturas Como Lenguaje Oficial de la Juventud de los Estados Unidos de América.” X Conferencia International Lingüística, Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística José Antonio Portuondo Valdor, Havana, Cuba, November 2017
• “Emoji, Emoticons, and Abbreviations as a Way of Communication.” Language in the Digital Age, Baruch College, New York, NY, September 2017

Michael Ilobi
Computer Science
Computational Social Science Big Data Analysis

Michael’s research focuses on Twitter’s application programming interface, use of SQlite database and the use of Python scripts to extract Twitter bio information. This research is part of a social experiment that checks for change in personalities over time by forming an hypothesis, and using the information extracted from Twitter with the hypothesis to form a data.

Michael’s research goals revolve around specific technical skills, like Linux familiarity, including bash and slurm scripting, Python proficiency, familiarity with APIs, file formats (such as JSON) and sqlite, analyzing large amounts of data (millions of records or more).

Michael intends to pursue a PhD in computer science. His career goals include gaining research expertise, conducting research and completing large projects, becoming a proficient programmer, understanding interplay between theory and practice in computing, and to have a broad exposure to different types of computer system including quantum computers and to mentor new generation of researcher.

In 2021, Michael participated in the 2021 Data + Computing = Discovery REU at The Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) in Stony Brook University.

Mentor

• Dr. Jason Jones, Sociology, Stony Brook University and The Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) at Stony Brook University

Honors and Awards

• Dean List, CUNY Medgar Evers

Conference Attended

• University of Maryland National McNair Conference, 2021

Hyunah Sophie Jung
Industrial Organizational Psychology
Diversity and Equal Opportunity Personnel Selection and Employee Assessment

Sophie will be working with Dr. Charles Scherbaum at Baruch College in the Industrial Organizational Psychology and Measurement Lab. There, she will develop knowledge and skills in all phases of psychological research, including hypothesis development, research design, data analysis and scientific writing.

Her research will focus on diversity and equal opportunity in the context of employee selection, measuring individual differences and analytics, with the goal of implementing strategies and measuring progress of diversity and equal opportunity in the context of employee selection. She intends to pursue a PhD in industrial organizational psychology.

Her career goal is to become an organizational behavior development practitioner and researcher.

Mentor

• Dr. Charles Scherbaum, Psychology, CUNY Baruch College

Honors and Awards

• Dean’s list 2018 and 2019

Conference Attended

• University of Maryland McNair National Conference, March 2021